Til Summer Comes Around
by KLafferty6
Summary: “We remember that this is good, that this makes us happy. And we see what happens when next summer comes around.” NH. AU.


**Title: **'Til Summer Comes Around  
**Author: **Kristen (OTH. daddy'sgurl. 06)  
**Rating: **K+  
**Summary: **"We remember that this is good, that this makes us happy. And we see what happens when next summer comes around." NH. AU.  
**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. Title and lyrics borrowed from the amazing Mr. Keith Urban.  
**Author's Note: **Again, not sure where this came from but one minute I was watching Will and Grace and the next minute I was typing away at the computer like a woman possessed. In hindsight inspiration kind of hit in a conversation I had with _Molly_ so we'll give her the muse credit, thanks sis. I'd also like to thank _Emma J _who was a complete doll and read over this for me. Enjoy.

* * *

_"You had to go, I understand, but you promised you'd be back again  
And so I wonder round this town, til summer comes around."_

They sat silently on the couch, both sets of eyes locked on the movie in front of them though she could hardly pay attention to what was going on. Instead, all she could focus on was him; the way his fingers laced tight into hers, his thumb stroking softly across the top of her hand, the way his body was pressed against hers, so innocent and yet so distracting. It was as if there were sparks shooting off of every inch of his body that was touching her, scaring and exciting her all at the same time. She wanted to know what he was thinking, what they were doing, what happened after tonight, but she was afraid to ask; terrified if she brought reality to this bubble of serenity they'd created it would surely pop.

She'd dreamed of this happening, for as long as she could remember really, this is what she'd wanted. It was never the right time though –not that now was much of an improvement, she reminded herself – and so she'd kept it to herself; or thought she had at least, everyone else seemed to be completely aware of it. But their friendship was the most important, and the fear of losing him alone kept her quiet as she watched him go through girl after girl.

Eventually she'd worked past it – or so she thought – dating a few guys here and there, all of them seeming to fall short after a few months for one reason or another. And so, she finally decided, she was going to be single, and she was going to be happy with it. And he could do whatever it was he wanted to with whoever he wanted.

She never saw it coming. It was as if things transformed over night, as if graduation set the ball rolling and neither could stop it. He told her one night, as they sat on the empty River Court, his place of solace that he shared with her, that he realized he needed and wanted her as more than a friend. Without giving her much time to do anything but gape at him in total shock, he continued to say he still 'had a lot of crazy in him' and didn't want to screw things up between them and he didn't want things to change, but he thought she should know, thought he should be honest with her.

And so she returned the favor. Admitted she'd always cared for him in that way, a revelation she was shocked to see didn't surprise him any, admitted she'd wished a million times over that one day they would work out. But, she agreed, they were both starting college within a few weeks, different colleges, and the timing –as seemed to be a reoccurring theme with them- was off. She wasn't going to be the girl from back home that held him back, she wanted more for him. They agreed to remain as they were; open, honest, connected best friends.

But there was a charge in the air when they were together; some unexplainable magnet that drew them in further together. They were inseparable, even around their friends who were none the wiser to their recently altered relationship. They stole glances, shared secret smiles, held hands shyly. It was never mentioned, their admissions, the decision to remain just friends; though she could see they'd broken the rule even as they made it. At the time she loved it; the innocent touches in the pool, soft kisses shared in the cab of his truck as he told her goodnight, late night phone calls that lasted into the early hours of the morning. But at the back of her mind, there was always that nagging voice that warned her, screamed almost, that this was going to hurt her –hurt them- when all was said and done.

The days quickly turned into weeks, the summer drawing to an end faster than she thought possible, and now she finds herself here, on the couch with him, the night before he leaves for college - the night before he leaves her.

"Hales," he prompted, nudging her a bit with his elbow. "You okay?"

She turned to look up at him, head resting lightly on his shoulder as she did so. "Yeah, just thinking." She answered with a small smile.

"About how much more of my shit we still have to pack and load?" he chuckled with a groan.

She laughed lightly at the displeased look on his face, knowing they'd have to get to that soon as they'd put it off all day, choosing rather to spend quality time together. "Ugh, no but thanks for that reminder. I was actually thinking about how I wish you weren't already packing and loading." She whined. "I hate that your basketball…thingy starts so early in August."

"Basketball thingy Haley baby?" he laughed. "It's team orientation. And I know it's early, but when Coach K says jump, the appropriate, and only, response is 'how high?' I don't have much of a choice."

"Well it still sucks." She harrumphed, pouting a bit for effect. She was being silly for the most part, and they both knew it, but it was either that or she threw a full out tantrum until she convinced him to stay. And she'd considered that option more times than she'd like to admit. "And you can tell Coach K he's on my list."

"I'll be sure to let him know my 5'4" best friend plans on kicking his ass." He laughed again and leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before standing up, her hand still in his as he pulled her to her feet. "Come on, those boxes won't pack themselves."

She grudgingly climbed the stairs with him, watching as their linking hands swung ever so slightly between them, her mind circling around the words 'best friend'. She was simultaneously proud and heartbroken as those oh so familiar words left his mouth. She knew that's what they were; they'd been best friends since forever that obviously didn't change when – whatever this thing with them was – happened. She'd always been so proud to be his best friend. He didn't let a lot of people in, product of Daddy Dan and his manipulative ways. But those walls he put up for everyone else, the bluster and BS everyone else complained he gave them, they didn't exist with her. With her he was exposed, vulnerable, confident, happy; and she was proud and amazed everyday to be that person for him. But now, now it seemed to fall short. Sure, it meant just as much, made her just as proud…but she wanted to more, wanted them to be more.

"Nathan?" she spoke softly as they reached the landing of the stairs, walking the short hallway and into his room, the calming feel of familiarity washing over her as she took the trophies and the dozen or so pictures of them scattered throughout the room. Walking over to his nightstand, she picked up the frame that sat there, smiling down at their faces that smiled back up at her.

"Hm?" he responded distracted, brushing a kiss across the hand tucked into his before releasing it, moving over to one of the boxes haphazardly packed in the corner.

"What um – gosh," she laughed at herself, never one to not have words. She looked up at him then, feeling his eyes on hers, his gaze curious and she panicked, suddenly terrified to voice the concerns weighing so heavily on her mind. "Um, never mind actually."

"You sure? Is something wrong?" he checked, and she sighed softly at the fact that he knew her so well, but her smile never wavered.

"I'm sure. I uh, I was just going to ask if you planned on taking any of our pictures of us or if you were going to leave them here so all the Duke girls know you're available?" she teased, smiling as he rolled his eyes, returning back to shoving whatever was in arms reach in the box.

"Oh hush, you know you're my only girl Haley baby." He answered with a smirk and a wink.

"Uh huh. I'm on to you Nathan Scott; your charming ways don't fool me. No sir." She giggled, preferring not to talk about the subject anymore, even in jest. She moved throughout his room, gently picking up his picture frames, mostly all of them containing pictures of them or her, before placing them in a small box, labeling and sealing it before inspecting his work.

"Nathan, you have awful packing habits." She observed amusedly, as he continued shoving God knows what into whatever box was in reach, actually grunting with the effort of trying to shove a pair of Jordan's into a box clearly labeled 'coats'.

"Yeah well, I wanted to shove everything into trashbags, but _someone_" he hinted with a smile, leaning back against his dresser as she took over his packing job "told me that was 'trashy and lazy and completely unacceptable!'."

She smiled as he mocked her. "Well it is Nathan! Trash bags, what would people think of big Hot Shot Scott moving all his stuff in with ugly black trash bags?!"

"Ugh, I _hate_ that nickname Haley. I hated it when Brooke gave it to me in 8th grade, and I still hate it now." He grumbled, beginning to move on to another box before she shook her head at him in warning.

"Don't, I'll do it. It defeats the point of packing your stuff in nice packing boxes if you're just going to shove it in the way you would with trash bags handsome. And I know you hate that nickname, that's why I used it." She finished, smiling at him widely as he rolled his eyes in feigned irritation.

"Is it weird that I'm going to miss that?" he asked shyly, the change in the tone of his voice startling her.

"Miss what?" she asked.

"Brooke and her annoying ass nicknames and overall irritating ways. And Peyton and her daily pms'ing and dark moods and drawings. Is it weird that I'm going to miss that?" he clarified, looking genuinely confused at the emotions he was feeling.

"I think it'd be far weirder if you didn't miss them Nathan." She answered softly. "I think it's the little things about people, the small details about things that end up meaning the most, you know? As much as Brooke and Peyton pester you, they adore you, and you adore them too."

"Yeah." He agreed, nodding his head with a small smile. "What things are you going to miss Haley baby?"

"Hmm." She thought, sealing up what seemed to be the last box. "I'm going to miss Brooke waking me up at ungodly hours on Saturday mornings to go shopping. I'll miss sitting in Peyton's room listening to amazing, no-name bands all day. I'll miss going to the lost and found with Lucas and claiming dumb stuff with him and –"

"You and Lucas are _so_ weird." Nathan cut in with a smirk.

"Whatever!" she laughed. "You're just jealous."

"…maybe." He acquiesced. "What else?"

"You're truck." She answered with a wistful smile.

"My truck?" he repeated, his voice tinged with confusion and hurt. "Not me, but my truck. Why my truck?"

"Nathan! You're so silly sometimes I swear. All bent out of shape over me missing an inanimate object instead of you." She laughed. "I'll miss your truck _because _of you, handsome. I love that truck. I love riding in your truck with you to run errands, or lying in the bed of the truck star gazing, or watching you work on the truck. That truck is one of my favorite places to be with you."

"Oh." He simply said with a smile, staring at her intently, and she'd swear his eyes were actually sparkling. "What else will you miss about me?"

She shook her head at his obvious attempt to make the conversation more about him; a boy and his ego she mused. "It's not attractive to fish for compliments Scott and besides we're wasting daylight, lets get these boxes loaded mister!" she exclaimed, popping up from her seat on his floor and racing down the stairs, the sound of rain growing louder the closer she got to the front door causing her to skid to a stop.

"Oh it would freaking figure." She mumbled.

"Talking to yourself again Hales?" he quipped, stopping short as he realized why she was grumbling. "Well, damn."

"Yeah. Of course it would rain now right? Its been gorgeous all day and we sat our lazy asses in the house and now that we're being productive, what does it do? It rains. And it's not even regular rain; it's like a freaking monsoon outside!"

He smiled at her, amused as always by her rants and ramblings. "You done?"

"Yeah sure, whatever." She sighed, unable to help smiling back at him. "So what's the game plan handsome?"

"Well, we're going to load up the truck and then you're going to take yourself home before the weather gets any worse and you _cant_ get home." He answered as if it were obvious.

"Nathan, are you crazy? It'll take us at least four trips each to the truck to get it loaded. That's a torrential down pour outside and you want me to drive home in it?" she questioned, half shocked that he expected her to not only load the car in the rain, but drive home, the other half completely hurt that he _wanted_ her to go home.

"Haley baby, the truck has to get loaded one way or another and I'd rather get it done tonight then rush around in the morning. You don't have to stay and help load if you don't want to though." He tried to reason, sensing she was upset with him and/or the situation.

"Do you want me to leave?" she asked in a quiet voice, suddenly so unsure of everything.

"What? Hales, no of course I don't want you to leave. If I had my way baby you'd be packed up in one of those boxes and going with me to Duke tomorrow." He answered, pulling her to him, his arms wrapped lightly around her waist. "But that's not the way things worked out, and it sucks, but we knew this was coming right?"

She shrugged wordlessly, feeling as if her emotions were playing bumper cars with one another.

"Hales." He sighed, brushing back a loose strand of hair from her eyes, his hand ghosting down the side of her face. "We talked about this and we –"

She was shaking her head in disagreement before he could even finish his sentence. "No we didn't Nathan, not really. We talked about not doing anything, we talked about staying friends like we were."

"And we're not friends now?" he fired back.

"No. I mean, yes, of course we are Nathan. But we agreed we were going to keep things they way they were…and we didn't."

"What's your point Haley?" he asked defensively, even as he kept his hold on her.

"My point is Nathan, I…we…ugh!" she let out, tearing her hand anxiously through her hair before returning it to lay on his chest. "My point is, this sucks. This little hole we dug for ourselves was lovely and perfect and amazing while we were digging it, but now we need to climb out and we can't. My point is, you're leaving in the morning and I have no idea where that leaves us."

"It leaves us best friends Hales." He answered, receiving an exasperated look.

"Nathan, that's not what I –" she started.

"I know Haley. I know that's not what you meant, and it's not what you want, but it's my answer just the same. And I know. I know that makes me a jerk. I know you want more, so do I. But Haley, I _cannot_ do a long distance relationship, especially with you. Not because you're not worth it and not because I want to explore my options."

"Then why?" she whispered.

"Because Haley!" he exclaimed in frustration as if that answered her question. "Because you've been my best friend since as long as I can remember. Because you understand me better than anyone and you make me laugh more than anyone. Because as it is, I'm going to miss you like crazy, I don't need to be thinking about how much I wish you were in my arms our how much I missed holding your hand or kissing you in my truck. There's no way I could handle school, basketball _and_ missing you in that capacity. It would consume me. And call me conceited, but I have a feeling it would overwhelm you too."

She stared up at him, resisting the strong urge to let her jaw hit the ground in shock. For some reason, she'd never assumed he'd been just as preoccupied with their situation as she was.

"Nathan, I –" she faltered, not sure what she should say, what she could say. "Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know that I have an answer to that Haley baby." He told her honestly. "The best I can suggest is that we stay best friends and see what happens."

"So, this-" she motioned between them, tears pooling in her eyes as she realized their summer, which had become so much more than a season or a break from school, was coming to an end.

"We remember that this," he said as he leaned down, pressing a sweet lingering kiss to her lips, one of his hands coming up to cup her face, his thumb swiping away a rebellious tear. "We remember that this is good, that this makes us happy. And we see what happens when next summer comes around."

Nodding, she smiled up at softly, standing on her toes to push another kiss to his lips, whispering something so soft he felt, rather than heard it. "Until next summer."


End file.
